Ahold Pulls the Plug on Original Bfresh Location

Bfresh, the experimental small-format neighborhood grocery store introduced by Ahold in 2015, is closing its original location in Boston’s Allston neighborhood by Dec. 28.

The closure will leave the once-promising format, which opened five stores since the Allston debut, with a single location in Somerville, Mass., which parent Stop & Shop said it would continue to run.

Stop & Shop in a statement said the company made the “difficult decision” not to renew the lease on the site “as the store was not meeting financial expectations.”

Bfresh was the product of about 25 Ahold workers assigned to a team known as Fresh Formats LLC, which developed the concept separate from the parent company and its conventional supermarket brands. Aimed at innovations addressing the changing way millennial customers wanted to shop and eat, the store opened with an emphasis on a scratch kitchen, known as the Little Kitchen, where a chef prepared meals to go in full view of shoppers. Merchandising and assortment choices were also tailored to what they believed millennials wanted, including bulk grains and a heavy concentration of natural and organic products.

Photograph courtesy of Bfresh

When it opened in August 2015, Bfresh not only overtly avoided an association with its parent but marketed itself—perhaps excessively so—as a hip alternative to conventional stores, appealing to the idea that young shoppers and students in the Allston neighborhood wanted to avoid “lame foods” and other “trade-offs” inherent in conventional shopping, for example, paying more for natural and organic food.

However, the business did not take off as officials hoped it would, and the Allston store eventually adjusted its merchandise and focus, bringing in Ahold’s Nature’s Promise private brands for the first time and adjusting food-to-go to include more packaged items. A second Bfresh location in Fairfield, Conn., closed shortly after opening in 2016. A location in Brighton, Mass., also closed in late 2017 after about a year and a half in business.

After the merger of Ahold and Delhaize, the Fresh Formats team was dissolved and management of the concept fell under the combined company’s Stop & Shop banner. Another site originally planned to be a Bfresh in Newton, Mass., opened last year as a 21,000-square-foot Stop & Shop.

“We look forward to continuing to serve the community at our Allston Stop & Shop on Everett Street and our Brookline Stop & Shop on Harvard Street,” Stop & Shop said. “Both of these stores are located less than 2 miles from the Allston Bfresh location.”